New Massive Attack EP Ritual Spirit Out Now

Massive Attack's first (and hopefully not only) release of 2016, gets underway today with the release of a new 4 track EP entitled Ritual Spirit. The EP was mainly written and produced by 3D and Euan Dickinson. The press release for the EP also intriguingly states that there will be a second EP out shortly that is more Daddy G centric, and with that to be followed by a new album later this year. So great news all around, even though as a long term Massive Attack fan I've learned to be a bit dubious of new album release claims. With luck though it will all come to pass.

Back to this EP, a new video has just gone online for Take It There, directed by Hiro Murai and featuring well known indie actor John Hawkes.

Take It There is possibly the highlight of the EP for me, featuring the return of Tricky to collaborating with Massive Attack after 20 year absense. News about Tricky working with Massive Attack first surfaced in 2012, but at least now we can hear what they've been cooking up in the studio.

The self titled EP track Ritual Spirit is also noteworthy. Featuring the textured vocals of newcomer Azekel, who is also on tour with Massive Attack at the moment, its the most melodic and accessible of the tracks upon first listen.

The Dead Editors track with Roots Manuva, sees Massive Attack taking a leaf out of Burial's playbook with a futuristic dub mix which becomes vaguely more unsettling the more you listen to it. An instrumental of this track first appeared last year on the UK Gold Soundtrack that 3D and Euan contributed the score to.

The track Voodoo In My Blood is one of two tracks that Massive Attack have worked on with with Young Fathers (who are also on tour with the band). The other track "He Needs Me" was premiered last month in a video for the Paris COP21 conference. Both tracks are being performed live on tour this year.

Finally, the one new track which is being performed live this year which has not been released so far is known as "Clock Forward", and has live vocals by Martina Topley Bird. A bootleg video of it is available here. They might be saving Clock Forward for the next EP or possibly even the mooted new album.

I've also started a poll on Twitter if you would like to pass your vote for your personal favourite of the new EP tracks.

Another year nearly over and I'd thought I'd better write a quick blog post about what Massive Attack have been up to in 2017. Compared to 2016, this year has been relatively quiet, but we can only hope behind the scenes that its also been a good productive year for the band and that we can expect new music (and maybe, just maybe, a new album!) in 2018.

While Massive Attack are busying themselves with touring around Europe this month, earlier today on BBC6 Music we got the first taste of what presumably is the next Massive Attack EP. When the Ritual Spirit EP came out last January we were promised at the time another EP (with Daddy G taking the reins from 3D), that would come out in the Summer. Well it looks like that promise has been delivered upon.

We're roughly halfway through Massive Attack's 2016 tour, which has just finished its UK leg before hitting the rest of Europe, so its about time for a news update post covering all that's been going on in the last couple of weeks.

Massive Attack's first (and hopefully not only) release of 2016, gets underway today with the release of a new 4 track EP entitled Ritual Spirit. The EP was mainly written and produced by 3D and Euan Dickinson. The press release for the EP also intriguingly states that there will be a second EP out shortly that is more Daddy G centric, and with that to be followed by a new album later this year.

So I will make this short and sweet. I had two amazing nights in Dublin for Massive Attack's kickoff shows of 2016. It was a real privilege getting to hear the new material been premiered live for the first time ever. And the Olympia Theatre is probably the best venue let alone in Dublin, but also the best type of venue to see a band such as Massive Attack play.

Whilst eagerly waiting for next year's Massive Attack tour, 3D (along with Euan Dickinson) have scored the soundtracks to two distinct video projects which highlight the issue of climate change and fossil fuel lobbying.

It appears the rumors of a Winter tour that was speculated about a few months ago turned out to be true mostly. Massive Attack will undertake a 28 date tour early next year across Europe, and will use this opportunity to debut "new material" according to a press release that went out today to the media. Details about the contents of this "new material" will be revealed shortly.

One of the pioneers of early electronic music Jean-Michel Jarre, has just announced a string of high profile collaborations destined for his new album due later this year. These musical collaborators range from the likes of M83, Tangerine Dream (didn't know they were still together!) and of course, Massive Attack, who in this instance are 3D and Euan Dickinson.

Close to two years after first getting word of this project, (check out this blog post of the initial announcement in May 2013), the end result of the unique but maybe not altogether surprising pairing of Del Naja and Yorke was just released online as a free stream via Soundcloud.

For this post, I'm going to be offering up my own top 10 moments (with video evidence courtesy of YouTube!), of Massive Attack performing live from their birth as a live band in the mid-nineties, up until last year's controversial Adam Curtis co-production.